Fleming “James” Parker was a career criminal, primarily a rustler, but in 1897, he took a step up to train robbery near Peach Springs, Arizona. It...
An Arizona Outlaw
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True West Blog
The Bald Knobbers
The Bald Knobbers were a pro-Union vigilante group that emerged in the southwest region of Missouri in the 1880s. The area had been virtually...
The Steadfast Seminole
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the forced relocation of thousands of Indians from their native areas to reservations, primarily in what’s now...
The Archer Gang
There were an estimated 16 members of Indiana’s Archer Gang—almost all blood kin. And they made their mark in the 1880s in the southwest part of...
Lawrence Murphy and the Lincoln County War
Lawrence Murphy’s name is synonymous with New Mexico’s Lincoln County War. He began his business there in 1869, monopolizing mercantile goods and...
“Big Ed” Burns
“Big Ed” Burns was a con man of the first order, roaming the Midwest and West from the 1860s until around 1920. In 1877, he was head of a bunco gang...
A ‘Gem’ of a Saloon
Al Swearengen—yes, the real one, on whom the TV character was based—built the Gem Saloon in Deadwood in 1877. It was the most prominent...
Lotta Crabtree
During the time the famous dancer Lola Montez was living in Grass Valley, the only woman who was friendly to her was the proprietor of a local...
Marie Delores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert aka Lola Montez
The women who played the frontier theaters---singers, dancers and actresses—had a head start on the road to success simply because they were women;...
Carlos Tafolla and Bill Smith
In 1901 a gang of outlaw operating in the wild, untamed country along the Arizona-New Mexico border was led by a former cowboy named Bill Smith....
The Outlaw King of Galeyville
Galeyville, on the eastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains wasn't much different from other tent camp mining towns in Cochise County. The...
Those Fighting Editors of Territorial Arizona
Wherever folks wandered in the rugged wilds of the West during the second half of the 19th century there remained a desire to keep up with the...